Posted on 02/16/2018 9:22:52 AM PST by spintreebob
The flu vaccine is more effective than expected, federal health officials said on Thursday at a special news conference held to discuss the dangerous flu season, which is expected to kill more than 50,000 Americans.
This year’s vaccine is about 25% effective against the H3N2 strain of flu that is causing most illnesses and deaths, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Per the NYT. But look at the AP story.
The flu vaccine is doing a poor job protecting older Americans and others against the bug that’s causing most illnesses.
Preliminary figures released Thursday suggest the vaccine is 36% effective overall in preventing flu illness severe enough to send a patient to the doctor’s office.
https://apnews.com/84f1b7bf62ae47c28a8c82f0cb53bcdd/Flu-shot-only-36-percent-effective,-making-bad-year-worse
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The CDC (your taxes at work and they want more to double down) says 25% and calls it effective.
We need someone who understands the CDC to explain this to us lowly state health care types.
How is effectiveness best measured?
It depends on the purpose.
Sometimes I think the government wants us to get sick and die. Might be the best vaccine ever, if seen from that perspective.
What if JetBlue or Southwest was 36% effective when they repaired engine problems on their aircraft.
That is the million dollar question. prevention of infection, hospitalizations? or death?
My last flu shot, 1978. I rarely get sick.
If the brakes in my car only worked 25% of the time, I don’t think anyone would call that a success. #GovernmentStandards
They are all clueless liars. Some of them are saying 4000 people are dying per week from the flu. Others say 10% of deaths are due to it this year. I do not believe them.
What if you had only a 36% chance of getting to work alive?
Would you go?.................
What a business model these guys have!
- Government buys up massive amounts of your inventory.
- Government mandates people use your product (school immumnizations).
- Government gives you total and complete immunity from product liability.
If the product was so great they would not need all this.
> How is effectiveness best measured?
I don’t get sick ;-)
I’m 64 and have never had the vaccine. The last time I had the flu was in the 20th century.
To be clear, we pray for protection from illness and injury ever single day. The Great Healer is faithful.
We are new MediCare Kaiser members as of last fall.
Kaiser gave us a free flu shot after we joined last October.
If the shots were not cost effective for Kaiser, having efficacy for the patients/us. Kaiser would not be giving the shots to its patients for free.
Often, when older patients get the flu, that can start a cascade of interrelated and costly health problems.
Even a 35% reduction in these cases helps both the patients and the health organization.
Younger patients/pediatric patients can often have severe health problems after getting the flu. That drives the costs up again.
I never get a flu shot and I don't recall having the flu in the past two decades. Some people who have received flu shots have come down with the flu. The evidence is clear... flu shots cause people to get sick.
Trump recently cut the CDC budget. Their PR department must be working overtime to come up with justifications for more money.
In prior year, an IT company big in AI and big in Healthcare came out with a study proving both the health effectiveness and cost effeciveness of the Flu vaccine of that year. I was able to do independent verification of their numbers. Total hogwash. They clearly had a bias and let that bias influence the non-mathematical way they handled the numbers. It would be interesting to see the science and math behind these stories.
what if you had a 36% greater chance of surviving cancer, would you take the medicine?
.
The vaccine is effective at causing the flu in weak subjects.
It is ineffective at causing flu in strong subjects, and that is what is bothering the CDC.
.
Would depend on how much I hated my job.
I’m gonna rush right out and get my shot!/s
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/11/does-the-vaccine-matter/307723/
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